"Darkness is coming over America. For the first time in nearly 100 years a total solar eclipse will be visible from coast to coast across the United States. Monday August 21st will be “The Great American Eclipse.” It will be an American-centric event. Millions of people are travelling to see the totality of the eclipse, …"

"The man walking to Confession looked ragged and poor; probably homeless. Perhaps that’s why people just ignored him when he was hit by a passing trolley and thrown to the side of the road. He was eventually taken to the hospital, but they didn’t have the resources to give the best possible care to homeless …"

'There is a growing tendency in certain church circles—both Protestant and Catholic—to over-emphasize sentimentality. Sentimentality allows us to focus predominantly on our feelings. This can also come from a false sense of piety and an over-emphasis on personal devotions, which inevitably leave us spiritually dry. Our faith is true regardless of how we feel in …"

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Psalm 32:8 Imagine, if you can, that one of the greatest professional athletes of our times absolutely hated to play sports as a boy, and was clumsy and uncoordinated. This hypothetical situations could well …"

"The upcoming Fall Quarter at the Avila Institute will feature a Graduate Program course on Introduction to Spiritual Theology taught by Dr. Joseph Hollcraft. You can sign up for this course or Theology of Divine Mercy, Conversion and Suffering by applying for the Graduate Studies Program. Are you on the path to holiness? Everyone is Called to …"

"St. Stephen of Hungary (975-1038) played an important role in Christianizing his country. Stephen was born a pagan, but as a youth, he and his father, Duke Geza, were baptized by the Bohemian bishop St. Adalbert of Prague. At the age of twenty Stephen married Gisela, the sister of the Emperor St. Henry II. In …"

"Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of …"

"The word “Church” means many things to many people. To some the Church is merely a structure, a body of laws designed to make everyone as miserable as possible, an authoritarian body which takes delight in exercising the prerogative of telling the world what it can and cannot do. There are others who look upon …"

"Every year the Church obliges Catholics to attend Mass on August 15th, in the middle of summer, to honor the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The belief pertaining to Mary’s Assumption, while celebrated for centuries (many saints have homilies on the Assumption), was elevated to the status of dogma with the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus …

"The newest Retreat Guide from RC Spirituality, God Is Faithful: A Retreat Guide on Mary’s Assumption into Heaven, is now available at www.RCSpirituality.org. The Blessed Virgin Mary led a life full of suffering. But she never let that suffering obscure her faith in …"

Almighty, ever-living God,you have taken the mother of your Son,the immaculate Virgin Mary,body and soul into the glory where you dwell.Keep our hearts set on heavenso that, with her, we may share in your glory.Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,who lives and reigns with youin the unity of the Holy Spirit,one God, for ever and ever.Amen.

"Each one of us is born with and endowed with a singular conscience by which we are obliged to form, to cultivate, and to follow in order to live a richer and more moral life. However, this necessitates a properly formed conscience within the soul. If we do not properly form a conscience we will …"

Monday, August 14, 2017

" There is no saint that has a greater impact upon my spiritual life than St. Maximilian Kolbe. This fact is ironic as early on in my conversion to Catholicism I did not like him at all. I thought he looked too stern in his pictures, and that he talked too much about the Immaculata, a …"